From Bedtime to Bestseller

The book cover

"You shall go west and face the god who has turned
you shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned
you shall be betrayed by the one who calls you a friend
and fail to save what matters most in the end."

                Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief -- the bedtime story turned into bestselling children’s book talks about a misunderstood twelve-year old demigod living in modern-day New York who has dyslexia & ADHD.  He tries to fit in to the world of mad, mediocre people yet it seems that he just can’t. He has been admitted to various schools but no teacher can handle his impulsiveness. He can’t even learn how to read English because of his dyslexia. Good thing, he is still surviving in his boarding school in New York.
 
                One day, the class goes to a field trip in a museum where he is attacked by a substitute-teacher-turned-into-a-fury because he is suspected as the one who stole Zeus’ lightning bolt. He is the one accused because he is Poseidon’s son. And it is known that the children of the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades fight over each other to prove who’s who.  He then discovers that his ‘disabled’ best friend, Grover Underwood is actually his guardian satyr and that he is a demigod. Grover sends Percy to a Greek demigod camp called Camp Half-Blood in the Long Island Sound after the attack to keep him safe and to train his demigod skills. There he learns that his ADHD and dyslexia are actually the results of being a demigod. Before he even arrives at the camp, they are attacked by a huge Minotaur but they survive. Later in the story, he is claimed by his father who is Poseidon only because he thought Percy was the one who stole Zeus’ lightning bolt. Percy explains that he isn’t the one who stole it but Zeus does not believe him. And if Percy can’t prove him wrong, there will be another war of the gods at hand. He suspects that Hades stole it because of the usual big three squabbles.  So he set off on a race against time to search for the missing lightning bolt. He goes to the entrance of the Underworld in Los Angeles to retrieve Zeus’ master bolt. Throughout their journey, there are several mythical monsters who try to get in their way including the famous snake-haired Medusa, the weaver-turned-into-a-humongous-spider Echidna and many more. Percy and his friends arrive at Hades’ lair and finds out that his Helm of Darkness was also stolen. It is later revealed that Luke Castellan, Hermes’ son who was the one who welcomed Percy on camp, is the one who stole the master bolt. Luke plans to give it to Kronos to let him reign in power again but he fails.

                 "The book has sold over 1.2 million copies in the subsequent four year, appearing on the New York Times children's Best Seller list and being listed as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's Best Books for Young Adults, among other awards." -Wikipedia

                On February 12, 2010, a film adaptation directed by Chris Columbus invaded the silver screens worldwide. According to Wikipedia, the film ranked number two at the North America box office with $83 million on its first week. . The movie earned $226, 497, 209 worldwide. The cast includes Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth Chase), Brandon T. Jackson (Grover Underwood) and Jake Abel Luke Castellan. The big stars, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Rosario Dawson took part in the movies as Chiron, Medusa and Persephone respectively.